SRU Media Hall of Fame announces 2019 candidates

March 4, 2019

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University Media Hall of Fame has released the names of 11 nominees for its 2019 class of inductees.

Voting, which is available by clicking here, takes place through May 1. Inductees will be announced May 3 on Facebook Live and WSRU-TV. WSRU-TV is the student-run television broadcast and video production company that provides students the opportunity to gain experience in video production, broadcast journalism and broadcast media.

Inductees will be honored during SRU's Homecoming and Reunion Weekend in October.

This year's nominees include:

• Julie-Anne Stoner: Stoner was a reporter and editor at The Union Leader in Manchester, New Hampshire and Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover, New Hampshire. Now retired and living in Oregon, she volunteers her time writing about health and environmental issues.
• Bill McChain: McChain has had a successful broadcasting career and has hosted numerous sports talk shows including on WAQS in Charlotte, North Carolina. For two decades, he has been the public address announcer for Virginia Tech basketball and football games.
• Susanne LaFrankie: LaFrankie has had a lengthy career in broadcast journalism and strategic communication including stints at WPVI, Philadelphia's ABC affiliate as the station's chief White House correspondent. She is currently the director of communications for Philadelphia's Catholic Medical Association.
• Vicki Hoover: From Pittsburgh to Texas, Hoover has served as an on-air personality for various radio and television stations. A former account manager with the Xerox Corporation, she co-founded the Women's Referral Exchange Network while working at the York County Chamber of Commerce. She is employed at the Doceo Companies in Hanover.
• Liz Herbert Archambault: Archambault has worked a writer and producer for multiple stations, including KDKA and WPCQ as well as for Hallmark Advertising. She now works as a preschool teacher and a behavioral therapist for children.
• Lori Cuffari: The late Cuffari enjoyed a highly successful career in advertising sales and marketing for more than 30 years. She worked for Home News and Asbury Park Press in central New Jersey and as a regional advertising specialist for the MediaMax Network. She has won numerous awards from the New Jersey Press Association.
• Jim Meyer: Meyer has worked as a paginator, feature writer and crime reporter for the St. Mary's Daily Press in St. Mary's. He now works as a reporter for The Derrick, a family-owned daily newspaper in Oil City.
• Bob Barrickman: Barrickman has had a lengthy career as one of the top voices in sports broadcasting in Beaver County as evidenced by his induction into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame (2008). He has covered the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers for many years as the sports director at WBVP-AM and WMBA-AM.
• Charlie Slaight: Slaight has spent more than 35 years in cable television advertising sales and sales management in a variety of states including Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.
• Jacki Muller: Muller's media and public relations work has been featured on "The Today Show," "CNN," "60 Minutes," "NBC Nightly News," The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The New York Times and The Atlantic. She currently serves as the senior director of communications at Grove City College.
• Richard Sutphen: Sutphen worked at KDKA and Fox Sports as a writer, editor and co-producer. Sutphen currently serves as the vice president and senior manager for media production and live events for PNC Financial Services.

The Hall of Fame will also honor Jim Trdinich, '86, with a lifetime achievement award. Trdinich, director of baseball communications for the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been with the MLB team since 1989. Following his graduation from SRU, he spent two years as a public relations assistant for MLB's National League before joining the Bucs as the assistant director of media relations, a role he would fill for two years before being named to his current position. Trdinich won MLB's Robert O. Fishel Award for Public Relations Excellence in 2011. The Fishel Award recognizes the "active non-uniformed representative of Major League Baseball whose ethics, character, dedication, service, professionalism and humanitarian efforts best represent the standards propounded" by longtime baseball executive Fishel.

For more information about the SRU Media Hall of Fame, contact Jim Aronson at jamesd.aronson@gmail.com or 828.767.6016.

MEDIA CONTACT: Robb King | 724.738.2199 | robb.king@sru.edu